Philabuster preaching

How do I listen to or read Philabuster preaching?

First read the portions of Scripture listed at the beginning of each sermon.  You can click on the link and find them.

The sermons are written as a string of aphorisms (terse statements or units with my insights or reflections) upon what I take to be the themes of the appointed Scripture of the lectionary.  I do not speak or write from a place of any significant authority, I offer the sermon as a collection of aphorisms in hopes that as you read and listen, you may be able to have an insight evoked for you.  I do not control the meaning of what I write or preach; I believe that you are a writerly reader or listener.  You from your own experience with words write or hear the meanings for yourself.  I offer my aphorisms for the occasion of your writerly reading or listening.

For the notion of writerly reading, google Roland Barthes and "Writerly Reading."

Little Child Arise!

5 Pentecost cycle b proper 8   July 1, 2012

Wisdom of Solomon 1:13-15; 2:23-24 Psalm 30

2 Corinthians 8:7-15 Mark 5:21-43

 Lectionary Link

  How many of you women here today could be called a “daddy’s girl?”  How many of you fathers here have a “daddy’s girl?”  In the chemistry of human family relationships and in the development of a girl’s personality it sometimes happens that there is a shared special closeness between father and daughter.   Today’s Gospel story might indeed be a “daddy’s girl” story.  And it is wonderful that in truly patriarchal cultures where boy-children were often more valued than girl-children, it is great to find a “daddy’s girl” story.  It is wonderful to know that personal relationship can even trump social and cultural bias.

  In the annals of psychoanalytic history, there was a disagreement between Sigmund Freud and his most famous student Carl Gustav Jung.  In simplistic terms, Freud coined the name, Oedipus Complex for his “mommy’s boy” theory and Jung thought that he discovered the analogy for girls.  Jung called the “daddy’s girl” phenomenon the “Electra Complex,” but Freud disagreed.

  Jairus was a leader in the synagogue.  He probably knew the prescribed treatment for health ailments as set forth by the rabbinical schools of his time.  But when his daughter showed the signs of being near death, Jairus was desperate; he was willing to seek alternative health measures.  Jesus had the reputation as a wonder worker and he was an alternative health option.  In the witness of this story, I think the writer of the Gospel of Mark was highlighting the fact that a leader of the synagogue was seeking this alternative medicine healer, Jesus of Nazareth.

  While the story on the surface seems to be about healing, the teaching purpose of the story falls in line with some teaching goals of the early Christian community in addressing truly human issues?  The major issue of life for everyone is this?  As soon as we are born we have to face the issue of being “near death” or having someone in our lives be in the near-death state.  And if this is not the sword of Damacles hanging over our heads, I don’t know what is.  How do we live our lives with the near death state always being a possible scenario?

  How do we live?  The Gospel answer to this question, is that we live by faith.  Faith means that we live as though there is still a significant life that we can know even while we have sickness.  Faith means that we live as though there is afterlife beyond death.  Faith means that we accept the life of God as more embracing than the moment that is called death in the human narrative.

  Living with the reality of death is an ancient human issue; that we reflect upon death in the way in which we do is what distinguishes us as human beings.  We have the tendency to “ancestor worship or veneration” since it just plain happens that we become significantly attached to people in our lives through the phenomenon of love.  The reality of death was so repugnant to the writer of the Wisdom of Solomon, the writer could not believe that God created death.  Death could only be a secondary freedom within the created order; death could not have the primacy of being associated with the intent and reality of an everliving God.

  Sometimes we may treat the healing stories of the Gospels in a rather naïve way.  The fact that someone was healed or even raised from the dead did not prevent the person from eventually getting sick again or eventually dying.  So was the main point of the Gospel about healing and about coming back to life only to be vulnerable to sickness and death again?  I don’t think so.  The point of the Gospel was how we do we live as well as we can given the reality of both sickness and death as two prominent probabilities in human experience.

  The longer that I have read the Gospels, the more I have come to appreciate what I would call the birth and child motifs in the words of Jesus.

  Jesus said that to be able to discern what he called the kingdom or realm of God, a person had to be “born again.”  One cannot get any younger than a birth event.   Jesus said the realm of God was hidden from wise but revealed to infants and babes.  How enigmatic is that metaphor?   Jesus said that we have to become like a child to perceive the realm of God.  Why do you think that Jesus used the child motif to speak about understanding the kingdom or realm of God?

  Jesus was aware of the adult world of war and sickness and rules and regulations and military occupation.  Jesus was aware of the kingdom of an adult world that seemed to betray the involvement of any loving God.  So how can we believe in the realm of God even while we live in the harsh realities of the adult world?

  We retain within ourselves the child aspect of our personalities in our memories in the times when we were not fully organized and categorized by all of the adult programming.  In the program of faith of Jesus, he wanted people to be freed from being dominated by the harsh aspects of our adult programming in life.  He wanted people to know again the naïveté of the child-like wonder and energy that was natively optimistic and hopeful before people become programmed by the adult reality anchored on the reality of death.

   As we endeavor for excellence in the art of living, we need to know how to balance true adult realism with the born again optimism of the child.  And in many cases, the harshness of life experience has left the child within us on the death bed.  And there is a Jairus part of us that does not want to give in to the mere harshness of life; there is the part of us that looks for restoration and reclamation of aspects of native optimism that has been left for dead by the harshness of life.

  The words of Jesus invite us to faith.  Through faith we can come to designate sickness and death to but time limited sequences within the fullness of life.  With faith we can look to the other marvelous experiences in the fullness of life and begin to live and tell our own life narrative as a story of hope rather being limited to events of harsh adult reality.

  The faith that Jesus invites us to is not unrealistic about sickness and death; rather it is embracing of the eyes of hope always to see much, much more than sickness and death.  The faith of Jesus invites us not to live our lives being defined by sickness and death and pessimism. We are invited to define our lives by abundant life that embraces all of our current life and indeed our afterlives and the afterlives of the people whom we love.

  Talitha cum, little girl arise!  The Gospel writer had a habit of retaining the transliteration of the original Aramaic language which was the native Galilean tongue of Jesus.  I often wonder why.   It could be that sometimes a foreign language borrowing is retained as a catch phrase for a habit or identity of a community practice.  The event of faith practiced by the early Marcan community was a response to the command, Talitha cum. Little child, Arise. 

  Let us respond to Talitha cum today with our faith.  Let the child of wonder arise within us who is able to perceive the realm of God, even while we live in very harsh adult worlds today.  I believe this is an insight on how we can find the faith of Jesus to be anthropologically and psychologically sound for us today.  Amen.

 

Quiz of the Day, July 2012

July 5, 2012

Summertime Quiz:

Episcopal means:

a.being Anglican

b.being Protestant

c.having bishops

d.having Communion

e.wearing mitres

July 6, 2012

Summertime quiz:

Which are not Sacraments?

a. Holy Eucharist.

b. High School Diploma

c. Prayer for the Sick

d. Reconciliation

e. Sanctification

f. Consecration

g. Baptism

h. Matrimony

i. Ordination

j. Rogation

k.Confirmation

l. hazing

July 7, 2012

Summertime quiz:

What monarch is associated with the start of the separation of the the Church in England from the Roman Catholic Church?

a.Charlemagne

b.Charles I

c.Louis XIV

d.Henry VIII

e.Philip II

Summertime quiz:

What Pope, at the end of the 6th century, is responsible for sending a missionary to the British Isles and then discovered Celtic Christianity was already there?

a.Pope Leo I, the Great

b.Pope Gregory the Great

c.Pope John XXIII

d.Pope Pius XII

July 8, 2012

Summertime Quiz?

According to the Catechism (Outline of Faith) in the Book of Common Prayer, what are the four orders of ministry?

a. Apostle

b. Teacher

c. Bishop

d. Presbyter/priest

e. Sexton

f. Senior Warden

g. Laity

h. Prophet

i. Administrator

j. Deacon

July 9, 2012

In the first American Book of Common Prayer, the Americans agreed to adopt the wording of the Eucharistic Prayer of which Church in the U.K.?

a. Scottish

b. Welsh

c. Irish

d. English

e. Ionian

July 11, 2012

Summertime Quiz:

The General Convention of the Episcopal Church is a bi-cameral body.

The two bodies are:

a. House of Bishops and House of Laity

b. House of Clergy and House of Laity

c. House of Bishops and House of Deputies

d. House of Lords and House of Common

A Canon/canon is not....

a. A collection of agreed upon books in the Bible

b. An item in official church law

c. An ecclesiastical title

d. A military weapon.

July 12, 2012

Summertime quiz:

Which is not part of a bishop's ecclesiastical accessories?

a. Crozier

b. Mitre

c. Ring

d. Pectoral Cross

e. Rochette and chimere

f. Monstrance

July 13, 2012

Summertime Quiz:

What are names for the first five books of the Bible?

a. Torah

b. Pentateuch

c. The Books of Moses

d. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy

e. All of the above

A Psalter is:

a. Comes from the Greek for one using salt

b. A book organized for regular saying/chanting of the Psalms

c. One who chants the Psalms

July 14, 2012

Summertime Quiz:

What is a Missal?

a. Any airborne object launched with ill or benign intent

b. Pertaining to the "Mass" from the Latin "missa"

c. An Altar Book

d. Book of Rubrics and Texts for the Holy Eucharist

e. Ambiguously three of the above

f. Clearly two of the above

Summertime quiz:

July 15, 2012

Summertime Quiz:

The Sacrament of Holy Confirmation is:

a. The result of a split in the rite of Christian initiation due to the rise of the normative practice of infant baptism, necessitating a further maturation rite.

b. a way for an adult to confirm the baptismal promises that were made on one's behalf at infant baptism

c. a dominical sacrament

d. necessary for receiving Holy Communion

e. a and b

f. c and d

g. all of the above

July 16, 2012

Summertime Quiz:

Which is not a Eucharistic vessel:

a. Cruet

b. Chalice

c. Paten

d. Lavabo Bowl

e. Incense Boat

f. Vial

Summertime quiz:

Eucharistic vestments for a priest may include:

a. alb

b. amice

c. cincture

d. stole

e. chasuble

f. cassock

g. all of the above

July 17, 2012

Summertime quiz:

Musical compositions for the Mass include the following titles based upon their Latin names; which is not a part of the Mass.

a. Kyrie

b. Sanctus

c. Gloria

d. Credo

e. Benedictus

f. Carpe diem

July 18, 2012

Summertime Quiz

A Collect in the Book of Common Prayer is:

a. A British switch of a verb to a noun

b. Refer to gathering of the offering

c. From the Latin, 'collectio' for a general prayer of the liturgy of the day whose topic or petition includes the theme of the event of the day or a dedicatory intention

July 19, 2012

Summertime Quiz

Which is not part of a traditional church building?

a. apse

b. nave

c. transcept

d. chancel

e. narthex

f. clerestory

g. sacristy

h. auditorium

July 20, 2012

Summertime Quiz:

See is an ecclesiastical term for:

a. Church candy in California

b. Domain of a Bishop

c. Visual enhancements for the liturgy

d. A cathedral

July 21, 2012

In the first Book of Common Prayer c. 1548, Archbishop Cranmer collapsed the traditional breviary hours of prayer into Morning and Evening Prayer. Which of the following was not a monastic office prayer hour?

a. Matins

b. Lauds

c. Prime

d. Terce

e. Sext

f. Octo

g. None

h. Vespers

i. Compline

Summertime Quiz

Why Isn't The Episcopal Church the Church of England in America?

a. Yanks could never learn how to speak proper English

b. British disgust with our version of a "Tea Party"

c. Constitutional disestablishment of religion and inability of clergy to take a loyalty oath to the Crown meant Anglicanism in the former Colonies had to be different.

July 24, 2012

Summertime Quiz

Actor Paul Scofield in "Man for All Seasons" portrayed what English author of "Utopia" and one who refused to sign the Act of Supremacy in the time of Henry VIII?

a. Henry Moore

b. Sir Thomas More

c. Richard Burton

d. Thomas Cranmer

e. Richard Hooker

July 25, 2012

Summertime Quiz

In the Book of Common Prayer, which Creed is used with which liturgy?

a. Nicene Creed in the Holy Eucharist

b. Apostles Creed in Morning Prayer

c. Apostles Creed in Evening Prayer

d. Apostles Creed in the Burial

e. Apostles Creed in questions and answers at Baptism

f. All of the above

July 26, 2012

Summertime Quiz

The Incarnation refers to

 a. The doctrine about Jesus being the Word made flesh

 b. The doctrine about the Virgin Mary’s perpetual virginity

c. The doctrine of the relationship between the Father and the Son in the Godhead

d. The  doctrine of the Holy Spirit’s omnipresence

 July 27, 2012

Summer time Quiz:

The epiklesis is:

a. changing water into wine

b. invocation of the Holy Spirit in a sacramental action

c. receiving absolution of one's sins

d. all of the above

July 28, 2012

Summertime Quiz

The title "Defender of the Faith" for the English Monarch derives from the time of Henry VIII because:

a. he started Protestant Reformation in England

b. he declared himself to be the head of the church in England

c. he like all monarchs are to protect the church

d. he received the title from the Pope after he wrote a theological treatise against Martin Luther

July 29, 2012

Summer time Quiz:

The Synoptic Gospels are:

a. Matthew, Mark and Luke

b. Luke and John

c. Matthew and John

d. Matthew and Luke

e. Mark and Luke

July 30, 2012

Summertime Quiz

What are the three legs of the three-legged stool of the practice and discerning of authority within the Anglican/Episcopal Church?

a. The Bible, the clergy and the Archbishop of Canterbury

b. The Synods, Diocesan Conventions and General Conventions

c. The Bishops, the Priests and the Deacons

c. Scripture, Tradition and Reason

Faith, Even When Bad Things Happen

3 Pentecost Cycle b Proper 7    June 24, 2012

1 Samuel 17:  32-49  Psalm 9:9-20

2 Corinthians 6:1-13 Mark 4:35-41    

 Lectionary Link

  We read a story today about the friends of Jesus.  They were sailing with Jesus in a boat across the Sea of Galilee.  And suddenly a wind storm came up and caused some very big waves.  And where was Jesus?  He was sleeping in front of the boat.  And so they woke him up and said, “Don’t you care that we are in danger?”  And Jesus woke up and said to the wind and sea, “Peace be still.”  And  the wind and the sea became quiet.  And Jesus asked them, “Why are you so fearful?”

  Jesus knew that his friends were fishermen.  They fished on this lake all of the time and they had gone through many storms.  So why were they more fearful now than other times?

  Well, they probably thought that nothing bad should ever happen to them if Jesus was with them.

  Some times we think that nothing bad should happen to us when our parents are with us.  And you know what?  Your parents never want anything bad to happen, but still some things can go wrong.  Why?  Because they believe in freedom.  Have you ever lost a game when your parents were watching?  Yes.  Now it would look silly if your parents tried to play on your team to help you win.  Have you ever fell down when you are playing and when your parents are watching?  Of course.  So we can have accidents even when our parents are watching.

  Have you ever gotten a B on your homework, even when your parents helped you to do your project for school?

  Should we quit playing baseball and soccer, just because we lose some games?  Should we quit playing on the playground, just because we fall down and skin our knee a few times?  No… If we quit, then we would let fear of bad luck control our lives and we would never try anything because of fear.

  Just because we have some bad things happen to us in life, it does not mean that God is not caring for us.  God does not want us to be afraid of life.  God wants us to keep on trying to do new and better things.

  So when we fall, what do we do?  Yes we cry when our knee hurts.  We get some love from our parents.  We get a band aid on our knee.  And we try to be careful.  But do we quit playing?  No.  We keep on playing and having fun.  Why?  Because we want to live in faith about the good things in life.  We don’t want to live in fear about the bad things and the hurt that can happen in life.

  Jesus tried to teach his disciples to live by faith instead of fear.  That is a good lesson for us to learn too.  Let us learn to live by faith today. Amen.

From Fear to Awe to Faith

4 Pentecost  Cycle B Proper 7     June 24, 2012

Job 38:1-11  Psalm 107:1-3, 23-32

2 Corinthians 6:1-13  Mark 4:35-41    

 Lectionary Link

  One of the chief tasks in the art of living is learning how to deal with the human phenomenon of fear.  We are reminded of FDR’s famous words in his first Inaugural Address, “we have nothing to fear, except fear itself.”  Wisdom in life requires that we have a right relationship with fear and the energy that drives fear in our lives.  Fear need not be something entirely bad; it can actually be human respect based upon a rational and scientific understanding of probabilities.  We need not fear all snakes while at the same time we don’t encourage our babies to play with rattle snakes in the desert.  Knowledge of probability in conflicting events of different life forms is based upon a respectful fear.  People who build homes on the ocean front in areas visited by hurricanes and tropical storms know about the potential conflict based upon the strength of the storm and the structural limits of the material of their homes; they still decide to buy and build on the waterfront and are willing to gamble the probability of their home being destroyed for the grandeur of the view.  Our knowledge of probability requires us to constantly transact with the possibility of fearful interactions with forces that might threaten our temporary or permanent well-being.

   There are all kinds of experiences with fear; some are paralyzing to the point of being designated as “phobias.”  A phobia occurs when a possible particular occurrence becomes generalized or universalized by an individual to become treated as a likely particular occurrence.   The fact that snakes do bite does not mean that because I know that snakes are in the county or on the block means that a snake is probably going to bite me.  How do we learn to co-exist with every possible bad outcome in our actual lives without being fearful?  How do we take the power out of a possible bad event in influencing how we act and live in our lives now?  We know the proximity in time to an actual bad event, does influence our lives in significant ways.  When I experienced a cat burglar at the foot of my bed at 2 a.m. in the morning, it affected my ability to sleep for several months.  That it had happened and the thought that it could happen again suddenly began to affect my ability to sleep.

  So, how do we live with the knowledge of actuarial negative possibilities without it affecting the quality of our lives or becoming gleeful insurance sales people?

  How is it that Jesus was able to sleep in a boat on a stormy sea while the disciple fisherman were fearful?  Could it be that Jesus already knew what was the afterlife of death and so he could sleep with an unworried mind? 

  I remember in my travels seeing street people sleep on crowded city streets with seemingly no fear at all.  How could they sleep without fear?  I thought perhaps, that they slept easily because they had nothing to lose.  They had nothing of worth to be stolen from them.  They were unfettered with any sort of baggage to make them anxious for their lives and so they slept like babies on some very crowded sidewalks.

  How many times in our lives do we want to cry out to an apparent “sleeping” Jesus?  Jesus, you are sleeping through way too much in this life?  How can you sleep through the abject poverty of the peoples of this world?  How can you sleep through all of the starving children in this world?  How can you sleep through all of the selfishness of those who possess the most without the willingness to share their wealth with those who have little?  Jesus, you just seem to be too content in your sleep in the midst of some major storms in our lives.

  That some very bad things can happen in life is the possibility of genuine freedom that is obviously at work.  On the small scale sometimes we think that we can locate a cause and effect chain where human freedom is involved; on a larger scale we cannot discover with precision the cause and effect involved in certain events.  Flapping butterfly wings may affect weather patterns in negligible ways; but in such a grand mixture of everything how could we measure or know precise cause and effects?

  A great wisdom book of the Bible is the book of Job; it is a treatise on suffering.  It is a rebuke to anyone who thinks that they know why we have particular suffering.  After all of Job’s suffering and dealing with all of the cliché answers of his friends, Job is confronted by God in the form of a whirlwind; God confronts Job in a stormy wind.  God reminds Job of how small he is in face of the immensity of all.   Job, how can you know the infinite number of relationships between an infinite number of things in the play of freedom?  Job, let your fear of the particular event give rise to awe in the face of magnificent immensity.  Magnificent Immensity dwarfs you Job, so let your fear become awe, just plain shut-your-mouth Awe.

  I believe that Jesus Christ came to help humanity convert their capacity of fear into the capacity of awe, because to live is to live with Magnificent Immensity.  But how do we co-exist with Magnificent Immensity, as it touches us in the particular events of our life?

  We co-exist with Magnificent Immensity as it is known in the particular events of our lives in the attitude of faith.  Faith is the experience of being personally valued in the midst of an Immensity that could quite easily leave us anonymously forgotten.  Jesus, in another Gospel is quoted as saying that God is aware even when a sparrow falls to the ground, and so God is mindful of each and every person.

  Faith is the result of transforming our lives of fear and anxiety into incredible awe in the face of Magnificent Immensity, and then funneling awe into the specific events of our lives in the personal sense of being valued and loved and cherish by another.  Faith is the sense of having distinction and value and not being diluted into total anonymity in the face of Magnificent Immensity.

  What this means for you and me is that we need to be at the work of coming to faith in our lives.  Do we have faith to be able to sleep during the storms of our lives?  Do we have faith to co-exist with all possibilities in this life believing that our lives are valued by God?  Most all of us come to know the value of our lives because there have been people in our lives who made us feel valued.

  The work of faith is the work of the church.  Jesus Christ needs us to be those who help people know that their lives are valued and wonderful.  We have important ministry in helping the people of this world come to faith, to know the value of their lives and to know that they are not lost in anonymity.  We have a mission in our lives to experience God with awe and wonder but also to move from awe and wonder to encourage others to come to the experience of being valued by God through us.

  May God bring us from fear to awe to faith so that even in life’s storms, we too can sleep with godly assurance of the value of our lives both now and in the eternal memory of God.  Amen.

Parables of Jesus: Deconstructing the Kingdoms of the World

2 Pentecost Cycle B proper 6     June 17, 2012

Ezekiel 17:22-24  Psalm 92:1-4, 11-14

2 Corinthians 5:6-10,  14-17  Mark 4:26-34

Lectionary Link

   Kings and Kingdoms are pretty obvious human and social phenomena.  They are hard to miss. Although we Americans believe kings and kingdoms should be regarded as obsolete political forms of governments, we still indulge in a nostalgia about monarchies.  Certainly in this year of the Jubilee celebration of the sixty years of the reign of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth, we are aware of a kingdom that has made peace with a Parliamentary form of governance.  Walt Disney’s fantasy was built upon the nostalgia of a perfect kingdom for children and we allow the minds of our children to be entertained by kings, queens, kingdoms, princes and princesses of all sorts.  So while we categorically reject the monarchy as the wrong form of governance, we romanticize and idealize monarchies for our fictional entertainment.  And since we inherited the Bible as the textbook and as the most important book for the church, we are forced to engage the notions of king and kingdom even when we don’t believe in them anymore.

  I doubt if Jesus believed in kings or kingdoms either even though despotic rulers were so common in his era.  The notion of king and kingdom was an obvious metaphor in the language of his time.  The most basic message of Jesus was about the kingdom God or kingdom of heaven.  And Jesus spoke about the kingdom of God using the indirect method of communication, the parable.   The parable was constructed as a riddle or perhaps similar to what is called a “koan” in Zen Buddhism. (The most famous being, “What is the sound of one hand clapping).   A parable was often constructed with counter-logic or with such an ordinary metaphor, it made the listener think, and think again, and project his or her own life experience into the parable.  The parables were so inscrutable, the Gospel writers had to write that Jesus explained them privately to his disciples.  Parables are constructed to be never-ending engines of meaning.  They just keep giving new meanings as we return to them with contemplation.  New meanings unfold as our lives unfold.

  I believe that the parables of Jesus about the kingdom of God were made so as to deconstruct and counter the prevailing notions of king and kingdom that he found in Palestine of his time.  For the people of Palestine, there was the kingdom of the Caesar whose presence was know by his armies and puppet governors who occupied the land of the Jews.  The occupation of their land was painful for many Jews because they were condemned to the notions of freedom and having their own homeland because of their holy book.  The history which formed their identity for them instructed them about their “God-given” land.  Their history included a record of controlling their own land under their own kings, the most famous one being King David.  The Jews were haunted by the notion of a messiah, an anointed one like David who would restore the divine order so written in their holy book, and make Palestine an unoccupied land again.

  So the Kingdom of Caesar and the nostalgic once and future King of David and his heir messiah, were confronted with the parables of Jesus who offered the metaphor of the kingdom of God.  The notion of the kingdom of God involved a deconstruction of the public prevailing notions of kingdom.

  How does the notion of the kingdom of God deconstruct the prevailing notions of kingdom?

The prevailing notions of kingdom were based upon the notion of public power as expressed in military might, bureaucracy and  public propaganda.  In a kingdom, the public propaganda announced in many ways who was in control.  And so it seemed so obvious that Caesar was in control.  It was obvious that many Jews were wishing for another King like David who could drive the occupiers out of their land, even though they knew from their history that most of their own kings behaved badly.

  What was this kingdom of God as revealed in the parables of Jesus?  Jesus said that the kingdom of God is so obvious and so familiar that its presence was missed by those who did not have the eyes to see. 

  How was the kingdom of the Caesar deconstructed by the counter-idea of the kingdom of God?  Well, the reign of the Caesar was only as secure as one of his slave valets who laid out his clothes instead of trying to assassinate him.  The Caesar’s kingdom rested upon the sustaining support of countless numbers of unseen and unsung people.  The Caesar’s kingdom rested upon a Nature that did not strike him dead with lightning or have an earthquake happen under his palace where walls can tumble down upon him.

  The kingdom of God is like the planting, growing and harvesting cycles of nature.  This cycle came before any particular king or kingdom and will outlast any particular king or kingdom.  And if people of faith believe in a creating God, then they should also believe that the realm of Nature is God’s kingdom that was before everyone and will be after everyone.  But that does not seem all that obvious when one’s life is dominated by the particular monarch or political leader du jour.

  The parables of Jesus remind us that God as the head of the kingdom of God and Nature is older and more enduring than any King or political configuration.  But what consolation is there for us if we suffer in the times of tyrannical or unenlightened political leadership?   The ancient past or the far off future does not seem to have much relevance to our current suffering or inconvenience.

  I believe that the wisdom of the parable of the kingdom of God helps us to know how to suffer and bear the things over which we have no control.  How much of our life energy is wasted in frustration and anxiety over things that happened over which we had no control?  We literally lose hours of our lives in stress and hypertension and the unhealthy habit of looking for others to blame.

  The wisdom of the parable of the kingdom of God is the wisdom represented by the tiny mustard seed; it is the wisdom of learning how to see with insight by magnifying the small.  It is one thing to dream about having good character; it is another thing to attend to the small immediate good deed that when added with other deeds forms the character of our lives.  It is one thing to idolize the great person on the stage of history without realizing that such a hero struts on the stage that is made possible by countless number of deeds of kindness and support by unknown, unrecognized and unsung people.  But those who see with the wisdom of the kingdom of God see the kingdom of God beyond the obvious scream of the public propaganda.

  The parables of the kingdom of God as told by Jesus invite us to wisdom; they invite us to be wise; wise in the art of living.  We can only change our world towards godly values as we ourselves learn the art of living as revealed in some of the insights given to us in the parables of the kingdom of God as taught and lived by Jesus Christ.  Let us be disciples in the wisdom school of Jesus today.  Amen.

  

Madness, Faustian Bargain, or Will of God?

2 Pentecost  Cycle B  proper 5 June 10, 2012  

Psalm 130     Genesis 3:8-15
2 Corinthians 4:13-5:1   Mark 3:20-35

Lectionary Link

  The Bible is a collection of writings that spans many hundreds of years and these writings record the inspired attempts of people to find meaning in life.  And there are all sorts of attempts at finding meaning in the Bible and the writings comprise a variety of discourses and modes of presentation to arrive at meanings.

  One of the questions of meaning that we ask endlessly and often in futility, is “Why?”  We ask this question about the motivation for human behavior.  The Garden of Eden story tries to give an answer.  Why do we misbehave?  Well the devil made me do it, or more specific to the Genesis story of origins, “The serpent made me do it.”

  The Bible represents in writing the attempt to give sweeping cosmic and theological explanations for the cause of human behavior.  On the other side of the continuum is science that wants to provide a scientific law to explain, not cosmic behavior but very specific cause and effect patterns in specific chains of events. Scientists want to chart a reliability and a consistency in behavior of all things in the natural world and we depend upon that consistency.

  In the human realm we cannot always depend upon reliability and consistency in human behavior unless we can say that the fickleness of human desire is consistent in throwing a wrench into the works to wreak havoc on human success.

  One of the causal mysteries of humanity involves speculation about human genius.  The world’s most incredible people are often the reformers who initiate a new order, a new paradigm and a new way to see and interpret life.

  Most often these reformers are controversial in their own time, even rejected or killed.  How many starving artists’ paintings are now sold for millions of dollars?  Aquinas, Luther and many other religious reformers were rejected or persecuted in their own time.  What happened to the Archbishop who wrote the First Book of Common Prayer?  He was burnt at the stake.  Our liturgy was written by one who was regarded to be a severe threat to the order of religious life in England by people who had the power to remove him from life.

  Killing geniuses and reformers out of this life is what the powers of the old order do when they feel threatened.  Along with killing reformers out of this life, they also kill them, not so softly with their words, their horrible words.

  And what were the killing words that were uttered by the opponents of Jesus of Nazareth and even by his family?

  Some of the family of Jesus said that Jesus was behaving the way he did because he was mad.  The “mad genius” motif was not meant to be flattering.  When his family were confronted to explain the behavior of Jesus, they perhaps were a bit flustered and at loss for words.  How come Joe and Mary’s boy is so different from others?  How did you raise him?  Does he reflect your family values?  What’s wrong with him?  How come he’s not like you or the rest of us?   Well, he must be “mad.”  His mind has left the accepted modes of the thinking patterns of our community and so he has “lost his mind,” and this answer seemed to be an easier one than saying, “he has left the clichés and standard ways of thinking of his community of birth.”  Jesus challenged the thinking of his days and so either he was in a new “soundness of mind” or he was mad.   Jesus did not get much respect from the family and associates who used the “madness” explanation to explain why he was different.

  Another causal answer for genius might be called the “Faustian” bargain.  This bargain has definition from the Germanic legend which was reworked in the famous writing of Goethe.  Faust makes a pact with the devil’s representative for unlimited knowledge and pleasure and gives his soul to the devil in exchange.  Often genius is explained as a Faustian bargain; some claimed that the famous violinist Paganini attained his virtuosity through a pact with the devil.

  How did Jesus whisper people whose minds had been wrecked by the diabolic forces of unclean spirits?  Some said that Jesus could only do that by making a pact with the chief of diabolic forces, even Beelzebul himself.  Why would the “Lord of the Flies” want to get rid of all of those interior pestering flies torturing the interior wounds of people to afflict them?

  The early Christian community believed it to be quite unforgivable to blaspheme the Spirit of such a healing work by calling it demonic.  Jesus whispered people through a Holy and Clean Spirit and he presented tortured souls a free choice to become rid of forces that had come to determine the inner lives of people.

  The breath of the whispering physician Jesus was a clean and Holy Spirit that brought interior health to his needy patients.  To attribute such good health to the work of evil forces was so distorted it only deserved the designation of being, “eternally unforgivable.”  And of course, something is only eternally unforgivable until it becomes eternally forgivable through repentance and amendment of life and restoration to being able to call good, what is truly good.  And what is truly good is a healthy untortured and peaceful mind.

  The Gospel for today ends with one of those enigmatic family value statements of Jesus: A crowd was sitting around him; and they said to him, "Your mother and your brothers and sisters are outside, asking for you." And he replied, "Who are my mother and my brothers?" And looking at those who sat around him, he said, "Here are my mother and my brothers! Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother."

  The natural order and one’s natural family can sometimes be in competition with the “will of God.”  The early followers of Jesus believed that a new order had arrived with the life of Jesus and what was family and familiar could prevent people from entering into this new order, this new understanding of God and life and the decision and actions that would come from understanding God and life in a new way.

  Today, we still pray to God, “Thy will be done on earth as it is done in a more perfect order than what we’ve yet achieved here.”  By asking for God’s will we hope that we are still in the family of Christ and we hope that we are truly free to choose even if we have to bear the shame of being called mad or Faustian.  Let us again commit ourselves to the excellent will of God today.  Amen.